GET OUT. Wonkagenda For Tues., June 26, 2018
via @MegKinnardAP

Morning Wonketariat! Doktor Zoom is out this week. Here's some of the things we may be talking about today.


The Russian troll farm indicted by Robert Mueller is using the same flaccid arguments on constitutionality that Trump has screamed about on Twitter. If that sounds familiar, it's because Paul Manafort did the same thing just last month.

In a new appeal, Paul Manafort is begging a federal judge to let him out of jail and rethink his lawsuit blocking further prosecution. Manafort was listed as a VIP inmate, but his name disappeared from the prison registry. He must be making friends at sleepaway camp.

While drinking and chatting with colleagues during a DSCC retreat, Sen. Mark Warner joked, "If you get me one more glass of wine, I'll tell you stuff only Bob Mueller and I know," adding, "If you think you've seen wild stuff so far, buckle up. It's going to be a wild couple of months." Naturally, Trump called the teetotaling fun police, bemoaning the Ranking Member of the Senate Intel Committee for knowing super secret spy stuff. It keeps reminding us of this.


Natasha Bertrand's new piece surmises that former FBI snitch Henry Greenberg was either freelancing or working directly for Russia when he offered "dirt" on Hillary Clinton to Roger Stone and Michael Caputo.

The obnoxious DJ with an on-again/off-again bromance with Roger Stone, Randy Credico, may have to sit down with Robert Mueller.

Trump's White House attempted to reassert its "zero tolerance" policy as DHS and Border Patrol announced they'd given up on enforcing it, with Sarah Huckabee Sanders blaming Congress for fuck ups the administration has already admitted to causing. Deny, deny, deny.

Somebody smuggled out a video from inside one of Trump's baby jails, and it's even worse than the audio from ProPublica. [Morning Maddow]

As the House hurtles towards immigration votes destined to fail, Republicans are still arguing with each other on how best to capitulate to Trump and his white supremacist base. The primary objective is ending family separation, but that's not stopping calls to build the wall, or Rep. Bob Goodlatte's idiotic scheme to use E-Verify on migrant workers.

At a rally in South Carolina Trump bitched and moaned about late night TV hosts and Rep. Maxine Waters being mean, continued lying about his immigration policies, insulted US allies, boasted about North Korean propaganda videos, and bragged about his support of bizzaro director David Lynch. Clearly we now live in "Blue Velvet," and Trump is Frank.

Fox News is reporting that Trump supporters yelled and cussed out CNN's Jim Acosta for doing his job. #Civility.

A new Gallup poll shows a nine-point swing in Trump's approval numbers in one week, suggesting that Trump's trade war and baby jails have pissed off flyover country, erasing any goodwill he manufactured from saluting the North Koreans. If they're mad now, just wait until they lose their SNAP benefits!

While everyone takes a turn shitting on Rep. Maxine Waters's most recent criticism of the Trump administration, Democratic leaders are worried about ceding the moral high ground to Tea Party crazies and Trump-loving fascists who are eager to use anti-Trump fervor on the left as red meat for Republicans with nothing else to run on this November.

Aside from saying Texas didn't gerrymander its districts to disenfranchise black voters, SCOTUS has been punting a number of cases, from "gay cakes" to bathroom bills, and everyone is pointing their boney old fingers at Justice Kennedy.

The EPA has been granting waivers to oil refineries for biofuels, despite the protests of the Department of Energy. This saves refineries as much as hundreds of millions of dollars, and the corn lobbyists are pissed they're no longer getting their cut of the profits.

According to Axios, Trump's domestic policy agenda is all but over now that Congress is locked in a big ball of political violence, so he's trying to wrap his little hands around the rest of the world.

Nerds are furiously stabbing pocket calculators and coming back with dire warnings about Trump's trade war now that Harley Davidson is bailing out and building a plant in Europe to sell more crappy bikes.

A nail company in Southeast Missouri became one of the first of many victims in Trump's trade war after it suddenly lost half its business and was forced to begin layoffs. The company expects to lay off about half of its nearly 500 workers by the end of the July, and close up shop by Labor Day. #MAGA

Outgoing Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake is pissing off his colleagues by suggesting the Senate stop voting on Trump's judicial nominees until there's a debate on the floor about Trump's trade war.

Now that everyone is focused on baby jails, the House is proposing hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to school safety and counseling programs. Instead, they're taking all that money and dumping it into the Capitol Police and local law enforcement procurement. Hey, it's summer time, kids can't get shot if they're not in school, right? #BeBest

The Trump tax cuts (for the super rich) imposed a new tax on previously exempt churches, hospitals, colleges, and orchestras, so it's no wonder Republicans don't want to talk about the tax cuts right now.

Trump will head to Fargo Wednesday to brag about himself and occasionally mention Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer's bid to defeat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner have endorsed gun humping, freedom fucking state Senator Leah Vukmir to take on Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November.

Missouri Republican Senate hopeful Josh Hawley paid lawyers tens of thousands of dollars from his campaign coffers to comb over HIS EMAILS as a law professor before they became part of the public record; that's really weird considering how much he complains about so-called "Sunshine laws."

It's another Stupid Tuesday, and people are headed to the polls in New York, Maryland, Utah, Colorado, and Oklahoma, while Mississippi and South Carolina head back to the polls for runoffs. YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!

Mitch McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund is dropping $25 million for ads this fall in Missouri, Nevada, and North Dakota in order to mitigate Republican losses in the Senate.

The piddly $380 million Congress gave to states for election security may not do doodly squat as states continue to use ancient e-voting machines, many of which offer no verifiable paper trails.

A free barcade in Chicago has a new dresscode for people wearing MAGA hats, and the Trumpkins in suburbia are not happy.

Sen. Rand Paul is suing his neighbor for kicking his ass.

Lawyers for Michael Cohen are trying to claw back 12,000 of the 4 million files seized by the FBI by claiming attorney client privilege.

Michael Avenatti thinks any gag order over the Stormy Daniels lawsuit should extend to Trump and Rudy Giuliani, calling it "one-sided and unjust, especially in light of the insults and attacks" the two routinely spew from geriatric cake holes.

During his monologue, Jimmy Fallon clapped back at Trump by thanking him for sending his ratings down the shitter during his lame 2016 appearance, adding, "I have more important things to do." Okay.

In a long, rambling story aimed at promoting his new album, Kanye says that he was pressured to support Hillary Clinton. #HesRunning.

Congress might be dragging its fat ass on stopping cyber fuckery, but at least Silicon Valley is making an attempt to safeguard users from hostile actors, scammers, and trolls by holding meetings with officials from the FBI and DHS.

And here's your morning Nice Time! BABY TAPIR!

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Dominic Gwinn

Dominic is a broke journalist in Chicago. You can find him in a dirty bar talking to weirdos, or in a gutter taking photos.

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